one queen, two princesses, & their jesters

Tonight I picked the girls up from daycare a little earlier than normal and we stopped at the local high school Homecoming parade. I used to march in that parade, a billion and ten years ago, as a cheerleader. So it was a little crazy for me to be standing there for the first time in COUGHFIFTEENCOUGH years and watching kids of basically an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GENERATION doing the same thing I used to do. Audrey was unsure of the loud marching band, but Maggie was all over the candy-collecting part of the event.

Then after a quick dinner at home (Chipotle, FTW! Thanks, Dan!), Maggie and I headed to the Homecoming football game. A Girls’ Night Out, she called it. Works for me! Six bucks admission, a box of popcorn, and a bottle of water.

She sat there on the bleachers, happily munching away on her popcorn. Occasionally she would make a comment about the ‘flut-ball’ game (I will never correct that one.) and pointing to the marching band. Once, she asked if we were going to see Ben and Troy.

As she took in the sights, I sat and watched, feeling a little bit nostalgic for those days when high school football games were A Really Big Deal. Wow does that all feel like another lifetime. I watched her. I watched the game, the cheerleaders, the band. I watched the kids. KIDS EVERYWHERE. Kids, not much older than Maggie- seven, eight years old- running around with their friends, all fancied up in their skinny jeans and boots and lip gloss (YES EIGHT YEAR OLDS IN LIP GLOSS, HOLD ME, PLEASE.) It’s the social event of the week.

And that’s when I realized: in a few years, she won’t be content to sit next to me at the football game (it will no longer be ‘flut-ball’). Before I can say Meet me by the goal posts at halftime, she’ll rather be off with her friends, giggling and talking about boys and her new jeans and running around under the bleachers, than hanging out with me.

Then I hugged her, explained to her that Ben and Troy don’t play for the high school team, and we ate some more popcorn.

4 Comments

Melissa

A girls night out at a football game sounds PERFECT to me. :) And it’s so cute that she asked about Ben and Troy.

I’ve been going to my dad’s high school football team’s games every year for–well, since I was a year old! (I was actually born a week late on a Monday following the last game of his season–so considerate of me to wait! heh.) So I’ve grown up watching it all at different stages, and now, as a parent… wow. Very, VERY different! (It shocks me what people let their *little* kids wear, and all the kids with fancy phones, and teenagers with Coach purses, because REALLY??) But it’s the game itself that I love, and it’s something fun to share with my own kids, especially since we all sorta like that guy in headphones on the sideline. ;)

Oliver is going to be a water boy for my dad next year, so I can only imagine the language he’ll get to hear from the kids/coaches on the sideline… OY. lol

Oh the kids these days Jen. Having a 5th and 6th grader, I can tell you that the stuff these kids have are more expensive and fancier than anything I have! The girls are far more developed and grown up than we were.
I miss high school….we had a blast and I look back so fondly on the memories we made. I clearly remember you talking on the cheerleading bus about the boy that went to Deer Lakes and how you liked him. ;)
I love where we are now in life but I am so thankful for the memories!